Luke 8:5
A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was trampled on, and the birds ate it.

Hosea 10:12
I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness,
and you will harvest a crop of love.
Plow up the hard ground of your hearts,
for now is the time to seek the Lord,
that he may come
and shower righteousness upon you.’

• Last week we talked about Responding Rightly to the Word of God. This meant receiving it and clinging to it in a enduring way that let it deeply influence us and lead our decisions in life. Jesus used the parable of the seed and soil to talk about this (Luke 8).

• This week we’re going to continue studying how to respond rightly to the Word by talking about how to till the soil of our heart by identifying and breaking up influences on the heart that negatively impact our response to the Word.
  

• Hosea 10:12
  …Plow up the hard ground of your hearts…

  • Tilling in Hebrew is “Niyr”.
    
    • preparing the soil to receive seed well by plowing, breaking up hard ground, carving a groove to receive the seed, and cultivating the soil, which means to develop elements in the soil that contribute to the health of the seed’s growth and Removing factors in the soil that are detrimental to the health of the seed.
    • There are 3 factors interacting with the seed in Luke 8 and each other that are contributing to a negative/unreceptive response to the word here

• The Footpath, Trampling, & The Birds

  • Compacted soil represents a heart that is resistant to the seed of God’s Word.

  • The enemy (the bird) comes to steal away the Word from the heart before any faith can develop.

    • But there are other factors present in the passage that can lead to hardness in the heart.

    • The way the soil becomes compacted is that people walk on it.

      • The Greek word is an idiom for “way of life”, “way of thinking, feeling, and making decisions”
      • This represents the influence that the mindsets and patterns of others around us, and especially their actions toward us, can affect the state of our heart. (1 Sam. 8:20, Rom. 12:1)
      • Trampling can happen to the heart before the Word comes, but it can also be a direct attack on the word as well.

• So How Do We Till the Soil Of Our Hearts?

  • Mark 9
    …V.23 “have mercy on us help us if you can”
    “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
    24 The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief!”
    
    • There was both a
      Reveal Answer
      response (belief), and a
      Reveal Answer
      response (unbelief) to the Word present in his heart at the same time.
    • This father offers us a great example of what to do when we want to respond rightly to the Word, but there is hardness in some area of our heart. He says…
      
      

• 1) I Do Believe

• 2) Help me overcome my unbelief.
  Psalm 51:10
  Create in me a clean heart, O God,
  and renew a right spirit within me.

  • You can’t change your own heart.

  • But you CAN Bring your heart to the one who can!

    • Jeremiah 24:7 (NLT)
      I will give them hearts that recognize me as the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me wholeheartedly.

    • Psalm 139:23-24
      23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
      test me and know my anxious thoughts.
      24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
      and lead me in the way everlasting